Rigid, hinged-lid packets of cigarettes are currently the most widely marketed, by being easy to produce, practical and easy to use, and by effectively protecting the cigarettes inside.
In addition to rigid, hinged-lid packets of cigarettes, rigid slide-open or swing-open packets of cigarettes have been proposed comprising two containers, one inserted in partly removable manner inside the other. In other words, a rigid slide-open or swing-open packet of cigarettes comprises a first container housing a group of cigarettes, and in turn housed inside a second container to move, with respect to the second container, between a closed position, in which the first container is inserted inside the second container, and an open position, in which the first container is extracted from the second container. The movement of the first container with respect to the second container may be either a straight (slide-open) movement, or a rotational (swing-open) movement about a hinge connecting the two containers.
A number of embodiments of rigid, straight slide-open packets of cigarettes are described in FR2499947A1, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,534,463A1 and 5,080,227A1, and one embodiment of a rigid, swing-open packet of cigarettes is described in WO2006021581.
Known rigid swing-open packets of cigarettes, however, have various drawbacks, by being complicated and expensive to produce, and relatively complicated to open.